The present article gives an analysis of researches of scientists from different countries over schoolchildrens education arrangement in nature environment. Outdoor education is considered as an educational process and technique that includes ecological education, carrying out open air events, personal and social development, human’s health care, developing sustainable environment. It was revealed that outdoor education promotes good progress in studies; social, emotional and personal development; young generation’s health preservation and improvement. The outdoor education is of particular interest from the viewpoint of possibility of its organisation in Russian schools with the purpose of activation of learning and cognitive activity, developing self-sufficiency in studies, promoting successful socialization and schoolchildren’s value attitude education to the health and environment.

The aim of this study is to describe qualitatively different ways in which teachers offer children (aged 4-5) to learn about phenomena in nature when visiting nature. The empirical data consist of video observations of children and teachers communicating with one another.

Variation theory is presented as a framework for analysing the data. The theory assumes that variation is needed to support learning. However, the variation is not in methods but in variation of critical aspects needed to understand the object of learning. This means that how the specific content of learning is dealt with has effect on student learning. The object of learning can be differentiated in three types, the intended object of learning, the enacted object of learning and the lived object of learning. In this study the interest is about the enacted object of learning, i.e. what it was possible for the students to learn.

The study identifies two qualitatively different ways to present the object of learning to the students. One way is based on the principle of opening up dimensions of variation and the second way is built on presumed shared previous experience as a resource for making sense of a novel observation.

The implication of the different approaches for children´s learning is discussed.

This empirical study analyses the qualitatively different ways in which teachers approach children’s learning in and about nature. The empirical data consists of video observations of children and teachers communicating with one another around natural phenomena found during excursions into a forest. Variation theory is presented as a framework for analysing the opportunities teachers provide for children’s learning. The study identifies three qualitatively different ways in which teachers communicate with children: one based on the principle of opening up dimensions of variation, the second building on presumed shared previous experience as a resource for making sense of a novel observation and the third involving children through using a make-believe playful approach. The implications of these three different approaches for children’s learning are discussed.

The aim of the research project is to analyze and describe how pre-school teachers during an in-service training period develop theoretical knowledge about focusing the content when planning for teaching science in pre-school. The variation theory is used for analysis as well as for the planning for teaching in pre-school. The theory can be described in terms of learning object, critical aspects, discernment, simultaneity and differences. 30 pre-school teachers from nine different municipalities participated in the project. The empirical material consists of a questionnaire as the preschool teachers answered in the beginning and in the end of the training period and of group reports. The results can be discussed as a number of critical aspects in relation to teachers'learning as: ways of understand the concept of variation, to discern the object of learning and to discern o shared space of learning.

In this article an educational action research study, based on a phenomenographic approach, is reported in which unexpected results have been possible to gather thanks to the inductive design of the study. The aim is to describe the ways in which contrasts of critical aspects of a learning object affect the students' generative learning found by analysing three learning studies based on the theory of variation. Variation is in this article defined as the varied ways a phenomenon can be discerned. By contrasting critical aspects (i.e. main features needed to understand a phenomenon) in a dimension of variation, the learning object (i.e. the targeted ability or knowledge taught) can change form and be experienced in different ways that influence the students' ability to learn. To investigate in which ways the contrasts affect the students' learning outcome was the primary focus of the study, but the results also show an interesting pattern of how students' learning outcomes in the short-term and long-term perspective are affected. In this study we have worked with learning study as a method, and the results are based on analyses of three learning studies made up of three lessons each. The results show how one pattern of contrasts allows the students to look critically upon their previous knowledge and make them find new ways of seeing the object of learning. This pattern has also been found to be more powerful in preparing students for future learning, since it seems to generate new learning (generative learning) after the learning situation itself.

This thesis takes as one point of departure the concept of the expanded curriculum where curricula encompass both the formal steering documents, as well as that which goes on within the framework of preschool education and through the actors in preschools. The overarching purpose is therefore to generate knowledge about what conditions for learning the work of teachers make possible when curricula are created in preschool settings for children aged between 1 and 3. The purpose is also to contribute with knowledge about what these created curricula would mean for children’s agency, and the importance they can have for children’s opportunities for learning and development. The three empirical studies consist of digitally recorded interviews with teachers and video observations with a focus on teachers’ communication with children in preschool. The discussion in the overarching text is constructed around three aspects that emerge in the overall results of the studies. First, the studies reveal how teachers’ work can be likened to a limiting curriculum which, on the one hand, is entirely child-centered, with the children as seen actors, but, on the other, can be interpreted as entirely teacher-centered. Secondly, there is the discussion about the affirmative curriculum, where children are presented as affirmed actors. In other words, content becomes those things that children are interested in, and their modes of expression are seen, affirmed and often repeated. Finally there is the discussion about the possibilities and dilemmas related to an expanding curriculum where children are regarded and treated as real actors in the sense that their intentions and expressions are taken seriously as relevant challenges. The current curriculum text for Swedish preschool can, in this sense, be seen as an obstacle in that its formulations are extremely broad-based, as discussed related to the results of this thesis.

This presentation aims to share results from a study concerning the preschool teacher as a curriculum-maker to preschool. The research question addressed is “what is characteristic for the curriculum offered, as it appears in one teacher’s verbal communication with 1-3 year old children?”. The study is carried out in Sweden and the research area is motivated by the need for knowledge about the implications that a goal-oriented preschool curriculum and broad discretion for teachers might imply for activities in preschool. A qualitative case study with a narrative approach has been adopted and follows the Swedish research council guidelines and ethical rules in social science research. Empirical data consists of videotaped observations of communication between a single teacher and a number of children aged between 1 and 3 during one morning in preschool. The results show that the teacher has an idea of bringing up and to conceptualize children’s near surroundings. Further on there is an idea of inclusion and to teach children different abilities. They also show that the teacher frequently uses questions as a means of communication, where a large number of shifts between different children and different issues are particularly characteristic. Although this contributes to a child perspective, it also implies a teacher-centred position and a fragmented way of exercising the discretion vis-à-vis the curriculum. The findings are discussed and related to curriculum theory and to early childhood perspectives. This research is expected to have impact on understandings of how preschool teachers deal with their teaching assignment for the youngest children in preschool.

The purpose of this article is to describe and analyze how teachers ways to communicate with children in preschool contribute to conditions for children's learning and development, and thereby to how curriculum is created. The curriculum as concept (Gundem, 1997; Vallberg Roth, 2001) is used both for the policy documents concerning preschool and for what is actually said and done in pedagogical contexts. Central to the preschool educational work is the communication that takes place between teachers and children. Hundeide (2002) describes communication as a dialogic interaction with verbal, non-verbal and physical interaction between adults and children. This means that adults’, in this case teachers, speech and actions are considered dependent on what children express and a sense of caring is created between people who interact (ibid.). Communication can in turn be said to contribute to the shaping of a social structure which, according to Giddens (1984) takes place at different levels of consciousness and whose duration varies. With that as a starting point communication between children and teachers in preschool can be studied as a contribution to the preschool curriculum is created, maintained and changed over time, but also as a contribution to how children's learning conditions here and now can be understood. The underlying data is from an observational study conducted in Swedish preschool where teachers communicate with 1-3 year old children. 4 teachers were shadowed (Czarniawska, 2007) and filmed during their everyday work in preschool. Ethical issues in research in all events are crucial (Research Council, 2002) and especially when it involves people who, like the youngest children, can not make their case or assess potential research impact (Heikkilä & Sahlström, 2003). This has been the subject of specific ethical considerations in this study. Shiers model (2001) for children's participation has in a qualitative analysis inspired the construction and use of analytical concepts. The study's results show qualitative differences in teachers' communication of content and in how they listen into and make use of children's own expressions. Overall, it contributes to a curriculum in which teachers' awareness of and challenge of children's perspectives and opportunities in conjunction with the formulated intentions of the curriculum seems both limiting and expanding. The discussion highlights the findings related to curriculum theory (Evans, 1975, 1982), social theory (Giddens, 1984), and childhood perspectives (Halldén, 2003; Pramling Samuelsson & Asplund Carlsson, 2003).

The aim of this article is to describe and analyze how preschool teacher’s ways to communicate with the youngest children in preschool contributes to conditions for children's learning. Data has been gathered from four Swedish preschools where observations were conducted to study teachers' communication with 1-3 year old children. The results of the study showed qualitative differences in teachers’ communication about a content. One conclusion is that a broad repertoire of ways to communicate seems to favor conditions for children as actors to jointly expand the content in focus. Another conclusion is that the repertoire of children's actions and expressions made possible appears to be related to qualitative differences in teachers’ communication.

The intention of this presentation is to discuss the role of education in preschool for children 1-3 years of age. It´s one angle of a study made in some Swedish preschools in 2009. The main study aims to develop knowledge concerning what the curriculum looks like that is described by teachers working with the youngest children in early childhood education. Focus is on descriptions of the what and the how in the curriculum, eg. what children should learn and how they can learn and also what is characteristic for early childhood education concerning the youngest children. A theoretical mapping of Scandinavian preschool research shows that only a few of the studies concern the youngest children, which contributes to the direction of this study’s interest. An interviewstudy with semistructured questions was carried out with 15 teachers who are working with children 1-3 years old in five different preschools. In this presentation I discuss and analyze some of the findings from the main study related to curriculumtheory and to different paradigms holding childhood perspectives. Childhood sociology, childhood psychology and childhood pedagogy constitutes a background to questions concerning child perspectives and the children and teachers as actors doing preschool. The results show that teaching assignment seem to be unique while the responsibility is to deal with and manage a large amount of care, education and learning on the spot. One concept evolved from the study is “a didactic in terms of the present moment”. It’s closely connected to the didactic questions what, how, why, who, where and when and important aspects are time, concreteness and a child perspective. In these teacher’s descriptions, children’s interests and needs seem to be more strong guidelines than intentions of the curriculum. Corresponding to childhood perspectives (Sommer, Pramling Samuelsson & Hundeide, 2010; Corsaro, 2005), this indicates a view of the child as competent and having the equal rights as adults. Another result is teacher’s sayings that self-esteem and self-confidence are prime abilities for children to achieve before they can learn anything else. This at the same time indicates an opposing view of the child as incompetent to learn until they reach certain amounts of these abilities. Further in these teachers’s outspoken curriculum the role of play is described as essential in preschool as science and mathematics while aestethics is hardly mentioned. I argue that this is can be seen as a sign of an approach to more school-like activities. This is in contrast to other research where preschool teachers position themselves as being against “schoolifying” in preschool (Enö, 2005). Related to curriculumtheory (Evans, 1982) for the youngest the results show a childcentered position and a broad interpretation of what are characteristic grounds for preschool activities. Teachers in preschool have an important work in order to achieve quality in children’s learning and development (Sheridan, 2001). Therefore it’s essential to discuss what could be the consequences if children never choose or are interested in some pedagogical content as aestethics and if teachers follow children’s intentions more than the curriculum.

The intention of this presentation is to discuss the role of education in preschool for children 1-3 years of age. It´s one angle of a study made in some Swedish preschools in 2009. The main study aims to develop knowledge concerning what the curriculum looks like that is described by teachers working with the youngest children in early childhood education. Focus is on descriptions of the what and the how in the curriculum, eg. what children should learn and how they can learn and also what is characteristic for early childhood education concerning the youngest children. A theoretical mapping of Scandinavian preschool research shows that only a few of the studies concern the youngest children, which contributes to the direction of this study’s interest. An interviewstudy with semistructured questions was carried out with 15 teachers who are working with children 1-3 years old in five different preschools. In this presentation I discuss and analyze some of the findings from the main study related to curriculumtheory and to different paradigms holding childhood perspectives. Childhood sociology, childhood psychology and childhood pedagogy constitutes a background to questions concerning child perspectives and the children and teachers as actors doing preschool. The results show that teaching assignment seem to be unique while the responsibility is to deal with and manage a large amount of care, education and learning on the spot. One concept evolved from the study is “a didactic in terms of the present moment”. It’s closely connected to the didactic questions what, how, why, who, where and when and important aspects are time, concreteness and a child perspective. In these teacher’s descriptions, children’s interests and needs seem to be more strong guidelines than intentions of the curriculum. Corresponding to childhood perspectives (Sommer, Pramling Samuelsson & Hundeide, 2010; Corsaro, 2005), this indicates a view of the child as competent and having the equal rights as adults. Another result is teacher’s sayings that self-esteem and self-confidence are prime abilities for children to achieve before they can learn anything else. This at the same time indicates an opposing view of the child as incompetent to learn until they reach certain amounts of these abilities. Further in these teachers’s outspoken curriculum the role of play is described as essential in preschool as science and mathematics. I argue that this is can be seen as a sign of an approach to more school-like activities. This is in contrast to other research where preschool teachers position themselves as being against “schoolifying” in preschool (Enö, 2005). Related to curriculumtheory (Evans, 1982) for the youngest the results show a childcentered position and a broad interpretation of what are characteristic grounds for preschool activities. Teachers in preschool have an important work in order to achieve quality in children’s learning and development (Sheridan, 2001). Therefore it’s essential to discuss what could be the consequences if children never choose or are interested in some pedagogical content and if teachers follow children’s intentions more than the curriculum.

The Swedish school system offers curriculum-based early childhood education (ECE) organised as preschool (for 0–5-year-olds) and preschool class (for 6-year-olds).The intention to create a playful and educational environment based on children ’s perspectives, interests, and questions is strongly based on historical and cultural traditions. This article develops knowledge of ECE teachers ’approaches to science-learning situations. The study applies a phenomenographic approach.The analysis is based on approximately 9.5 hours of video documentation of teacher-led and child-initiated Swedish ECE science activities. We identified two descriptive categories and four subcategories dealing with science-learning situations: (A) making anything visible, containing the three subcategories (Aa) addressing everyone, (Ab) addressing everything, and (Ac) addressing play and fantasy; and (B) creating a shared space for learning (Ba) addressing common content. These categories are related to how efforts to take advantage of children ’s perspectives are interpreted and addressed in educational practice. The article discusses and exemplifies the use of various categories and their potential implications for ECE learning practice.

This article discusses results obtained from a study on the contribution of the preschool teacher as a curriculum-maker in preschool. The research question addressed is ‘what is the characteristic for the curriculum offered, as it appears in one teacher's verbal communication with 1–3-year-old children?’ The research area is motivated by the need for knowledge about the implications that a goal-oriented preschool curriculum and broad discretion for teachers might imply for activities in preschool. This study was carried out in Sweden, and the empirical data consist of videotaped observations of communication between a single teacher and a number of children aged between one and three during one morning in preschool. The results show that the teacher frequently uses questions as a means of communication, where a large number of shifts between different children and different issues are particularly characteristic. Although this contributes to a child perspective, it also implies a teacher-centred position and a fragmented way of exercising the discretion vis-à-vis the curriculum. The findings are discussed and related to curriculum theory and to early childhood perspectives.

Who will decide, those who are younger or older? Should one always tell the truth? How do people come to an agreement? These questions are the object of preschool children’s philosophical explorations in this study. The aim of the study is to describe and interpret what takes place in dialogues among children and between children and educators in dealing with these ethical issues. A post-modern perspective forms the basis of this study. Everything can be considered from other angles, and something new and unexpected might occur. The child is seen as a competent citizen in the sense of being expert on his or her own life, and having opinions that are worth listening to. The study indicates that it is important that the question being considered is one that matters to the children, and that children listen to the Other’s meaning in a mutual process of deconstruction. Diversity in thoughts and ideas become enrichment in children’s dealing with ethical issues. The acts of the educator characterized by a sensitive ear, tolerance and a critical mind are named “situational sensibility”